


Half and Half

by forthemyoui



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: F/F, probably not, will I finish this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-29
Updated: 2018-11-21
Packaged: 2019-04-14 14:04:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14137563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forthemyoui/pseuds/forthemyoui
Summary: Mina's a young businesswoman. Momo's a college student with a part-time job at a chicken place. It's not the best arrangement and Momo can be frustrating sometimes. Mina has half a mind to throw her away and half a heart to keep her.





	1. Half a Mind to Throw You Away

**Author's Note:**

> I'm probably not going to finish this. I don't recommend getting emotionally invested.

Momo slammed a palm into the handle of the water tap. Without the water pelting their skin and the floor Mina could hear Momo’s heavy breathing more easily. Her legs were clearly wobbly and the water had gotten cold over their time in the shower and pruned their skin. Mina moved her hand between Momo’s thighs, earning a nip on the shoulder and slap on the bum. She giggled at that and then reached blindly for the shampoo and soap without untangling herself from Momo, who had bitten into her shoulder many times now and was currently contemplating how she felt about the bite marks on Mina’s pale shoulder (sorry? Not sorry? Satisfied?)

“You changed shampoo,” Momo noted as Mina transferred a dollop of shampoo to her palm.

“Yeah,” Mina said, beginning to scratch at her own scalp gently.

“No wonder you smelled different,” Momo commented quietly, and then turned around to get soap, because aside from being an irresponsible baby about her time and also asking for Mina’s attention at the worst, most unplanned moments, Momo was also not into showers and thought they took up too much of her time.

As Momo began soaping her body, Mina took over shampooing Momo’s head graciously. Momo didn’t say a word about it, letting Mina do as she pleased. When Mina was done and Momo was busy scrubbing at her shin and an ankle, Mina touched Momo on the shoulder once and Momo rose up in response, only for Mina to embrace Momo in a sort of functional manner, doing her best to press every part of her front against Momo’s. Coming away quickly and not even sparing a gaze for Momo, she reached for the soap herself and began lathering her body. She stepped out of the spray of the shower as it came on again.

Surprisingly, Mina managed to step into the shower spray before Momo turned it off. She raised both eyebrows at Momo challengingly.

“What, was I that convincing about efficient showering?” Momo asked.

“No,” Mina responded after coming out of a rushed rinse of her hair and snatching a rather expensive towel away from Momo’s haphazard towelling movements, “I still think you’re filthy. I’m just in a rush.”

“Okay, what schedule did I interrupt?” Momo asked.

“Just going over a proposal,” Mina said as she towelled herself off and helped Momo dry herself too.

There was a pause.

“Really?” Momo asked.

“No, now will you please leave quickly?” Mina asked.

“You’re so bad at lying.”

“Honestly?” Mina blinked at Momo while deftly slipping a hand between Momo’s legs to cup her sex and beginning some focused movements with the soft pad of her thumb in a confusing power move that wasn’t entirely rare in their relationship, “You’re worse. And you’re also not entitled to knowing anything about my daily schedule, my daily life.”

Momo pouted gently but when she let out a breath the tremor showed how their physical contact was affecting her.

“Okay, can I interrupt your other schedules, then?” Momo asked, closing her eyes; she looked ripe for the taking with her eyelids fluttering shut, her short wet black hair sticking to her neck, and her throat exposed; Mina briefly imagined drawing out a whine that would deepen into a guttural groan as she maintained a palm on Momo’s pelvis as a pivot and thrusted deep into Momo.

“You can’t,” Mina finally said, and removed her hand, spinning Momo around and pushing her out of the marble-white bathroom by her bare backside; she turned on the tap and washed her hand off.

Momo started to languidly pull on her shirt and Mina sighed as Momo opened a drawer in her closet to fish out a pair of panties for herself, not bothering to complain this time.

“What’s so important?” Momo asked.

“It’s none of your business, now could you  _ please _ show some sense of urgency,” Mina leaned against the doorframe of the bathroom and put a hand on her still-bare hip.

“Lots of things that are urgent right now, baby girl, but not my need to leave,” Momo said with a horrible smug look on her face.

“Why are you so into dom-cosplay?” Mina rolled her eyes and threw Momo’s sweatpants from across Mina’s bedroom at her. “Do you really want to be spanked the next time?”

Momo giggled. “Don’t I sound the part?”

“Not at all. Put on your pants.”

Momo gave her an exaggerated frown and glared at her all while she shimmed into her pants. Even then she remained seated on the bed, wasting time by looking around the room for her belongings when they both knew very well she had brought nothing over.

“Don’t bother returning the panties,” Mina told her and walked over to lead Momo up and out by the wrist.

“Why, I thought you might like something like that.”

Mina swallowed hard. “No.”

Momo was definitely sad that she couldn’t enter Mina’s open and well-lit kitchen and raid the fridge as per usual, with Mina looking on a little nervously because Momo was about to wreck her semi-well done organisation of food items, and also because if Momo moved that one orange over she’d find out where Mina kept her snacks. Still, she made her best effort to drag her palms across the granite counter and catch hold of something colourful, something out of place and clearly a mistake in Mina’s well-put on appearance (no matter how much less elaborate of a front it was than her usual one).

“Oh, Skittles,” Momo said, picking up the open bag.

“Yeah, someone left that there.”

“They didn’t,” Momo said as Mina let go of her wrist and she popped one into her mouth. “You had one the other time I had a packet and you pretended you didn’t like it. Did you get them for me?”

“No,” Mina said and paused for a moment. “I got them for you for me.”

Momo nodded slowly and then closed her eyes, pushing off the counter she was leaning against. Just before their mouths met, flesh to flesh, Momo slipped a piece of candy between their lips and Mina quickly took it into her mouth as they kissed, Mina pushing her forehead against Momo’s almost firmly, aggressively.

They parted.

“Is that a red Skittle?” Mina asked, scrunching up her face.

“Hmm.”

“I really don’t like those.”

Momo rolled her eyes and fished out another one from the packet. “I wasn’t looking okay; it’s not cool to look when you do something like that. I like the purple ones.”

“That’s worse. So are you leaving?”

Momo rolled her eyes again and pushed Mina away, walking herself to the door. Mina ran her hand through her hair at the door with just a towel on, obscured from the neighbours’ doors because of how the corridors on her apartment complex floors were designed for maximum privacy. It was good because Momo could gawk as much as she liked - and did so - and after she was done putting on her shoes she ran a hand down Mina’s cheek.

Without having been asked again, Mina sighed and answered Momo’s previous question. “I have a date.”

“With who?” Momo asked calmly.

“S-some girl at work,” Mina muttered, stuttering.

“That’s not like you.”

“She’s cute,” Mina argued, tightening the tie on her towel.

“Sure she is,” Momo responded easily, “but at  _ work _ ? I know you better than that.”

Mina shrugged uselessly and let the silence ribbon around them.

“Are you trying to get rid of me?” Momo asked.

“Very hard.”

“Can I keep the Skittles?”

Mina snatched them from Momo’s grip. “No, I said I bought them for me.”

“You said they were for me for you,” Momo said, “so isn’t it at the very least a tiny bit mine?”

“You’ve had your share, and it’s the last subject in the sentence, the ultimate subject that matters.”

Momo suddenly wrapped her arms around Mina’s waist and tucked her face into Mina’s neck for a moment, quietly resting there. Mina let her be.

“Are you hoping she smells a college student with a part-time job at a chicken place on me later?” Mina asked.

“Quite the opposite,” Momo whispered, and then they separated and she waved.

Mina shut the door, looked at the time, cursed every deity, and got to work cleaning out every trace of Momo left in the house, lest her next visitor actually smell a college student with a part-time job at a chicken place here. She started with the kitchen, because no matter what had gone down in the bedroom and bathroom, it seemed like the kitchen space was most contaminated, stained a ridiculous shade of pink dye in the spot where they’d just been standing a few minutes ago.


	2. Half a Heart to Keep You

Momo sat on a well-wiped bench looking at the menu she had been looking at for stretches of free time in the past four weeks. She maintained a pursed smile in its general direction until the _ahjumma_ emerged from the half-open kitchen lit by fluorescent lights with an envelope. She took off her wet gloves and Momo stood up blankly, blinking and then bowing three times before she received the scrappy stack of money in its very tattered envelope. As she left the restaurant she took off her jacket, struck it against her legs as she skipped down the dark street (just narrowly avoiding getting into an accident with someone pushing a load of boxes on a trolley), and disappeared into a shop selling assorted candy just before they pulled down the shutters.

She wiped the soles of her high-tops on Mina’s mat before pushing open the door. Mina looked more surprised than usual (actually, she almost never looked surprised unless she had just come out of the shower, but then that surprise would turn into something else almost immediately, so Momo never had to think much about it). Momo placed her bag down and Mina looked at the plastic bags tied to the strap, but Momo was looking at Mina, head cocked to one side.

“Why are you wearing that?” Momo asked.

“Why shouldn’t I be wearing this?” Mina said in return.

Momo studied the casual blue dress. She liked dresses too. She removed her high-tops, noticing the reminder in Mina’s eyes, and then walked towards Mina, who stood still in the middle of her living room like she had been in the middle of a private moment. Stepping into Mina’s comfort zone, her hands rose and Mina watched them rise. Mina held her breath, half-expecting something else when Momo touched the knot at the waist of her dress and undid it, loosening it slightly.

Mina let out the breath she was holding. It was easier to breathe now.

“I came back from a date,” Mina said and implied something else; or she was trying to imply something else, but it seemed like even she was not sure what message she was trying to indirectly impose upon Momo in that second.

“I brought chicken.”

Mina looked at Momo as if to say ‘are you serious’ and Momo tugged once more on the tie on Mina’s dress as if to undo every reservation. They sat at the counter that Mina had so earnestly scrubbed at three days ago and opened the box of chicken. Grease had already seeped through the bottom and the sides, and Mina didn’t try to pat the pieces dry of grease.

“Do you need a bath?” Mina asked.

Momo shrugged. “Maybe, depends on what we’re doing after this.”

Mina didn’t give that a response. She took a large bite out of a chicken drumstick. She chewed on the ends of the bones and then la her head on the cold counter.

“I already had dinner with someone,” Mina said, looking at the grease on the box more carefully now and wondering whether she was about to throw up from it.

Momo undid the jacket from around her hips and placed it on the floor near her bag. She shut the box and took it to the bin.

“You can have two dinners.”

“I really appreciate the chicken, but why are you working?” Mina asked, at this point removing her dress while Momo had her back turned. “I thought you were on scholarship.”

Momo rolled her eyes as she stood at the sink washing her hands.

“You’re rolling your eyes.”

“I just have more expenses now,” Momo laughed and said.

Mina raised an eyebrow, noticing a spot of seasoning and grease on the counter and wiping it off with her finger. She put that finger in her mouth and sucked it clean.

“Are you buying an escort’s time or something?”

Momo spun around, maintaining her eye-roll, and then stopped when she saw Mina’s almost-bare self seated on a stool over the counter with her index finger in her mouth.

Momo walked over, hands perhaps still soapy, and transferred the finger to her own mouth, satisfied that she could taste salt there. As Mina watched her with an impolite sort of hunger that still managed to feel gentle, Momo let her gaze finally meet Mina’s.

“I’m paying for some dance classes,” Momo mumbled suddenly and quickly so that Mina couldn’t hear and then went back to the sink to find a cloth with which she might dry her hands; she busied herself with the cloth for an excessive half a minute.

“Dance lessons?”

Momo turned back and ran a hand through her hair, crossing her arms and then pulling her white tank top off by the hem so Mina could see her sports bra and intimidatingly toned torso. Mina unconsciously reached both hands out and Momo giggled, rounding the counter and catching Mina’s hands with her own so that they entered a sort of pushing game.

“Don’t you have allowance to cover-”

Momo cut her off with a kiss, placing her hands beside her hips on the stool and moving into the space between Mina’s knees. They kissed deeply, Momo’s dark short hair falling onto Mina’s cheeks. Mina smelled sweat and then became vexed at how much she enjoyed the scent. She placed a hand on Momo’s stomach with every intention to create distance between them, but then got caught up in how Momo flinched at the touch, the usually unobvious muscles contracting.

“Listen,” Mina finally said, placing a finger on Momo’s chin. “You can’t cover the fees with the scholarship allowance?”

“No,” Momo simply said and then went back in for another kiss.

Mina tugged the waistband of Momo’s training pants down and gave Momo’s hip a slap. Momo whined softly into the kiss, which Mina invariably enjoyed.

“So working for this place covers it?”

Momo came away from the kiss, but just gave Mina an irritable look that didn’t last.

“Yes, it covers it.”

Mina nodded and then herself rose up to pull Momo’s face towards hers.

Two minutes into Mina’s hand exploring underneath Momo’s pants and there was a buzz on the kitchen counter. Mina didn’t look back once, occupied with marking Momo’s neck, but Momo reached for the phone on the counter. Momo twisted her face down to place her nose in Mina’s hair, breathing in audibly.

“‘I swear, I’ll treat you the next time around’, smiley emoji, heart emoji,” Momo read. “You need some standards.”

Mina bit down on Momo’s shoulder. “Put it down.”

Momo yelped from the bite, making a noise into Mina’s hair.

“Go to the bedroom. Strip.”

“Should I rinse-”

“No.”

* * *

 

“You cried more than usual,” Mina said, palming the expanse of Momo’s front. “I know you’re a crier, but-”

“I get muscle cramps,” Momo shut her up with a pillow in the face. “Especially in the calves.”

Mina moved her naked body closer to Momo’s so their fronts touched. Mina kept her eyes on Momo’s as she reached down and carefully cupped one of Momo’s calves in her hand. She began a slow massage, Momo looking like a wary animal at the beginning and then gradually relaxed into Mina’s touch.

“I did dance too,” Mina said quietly.

Momo studied Mina’s face for a moment. “Does that have anything to do with the trophies at the bottom of your closet?”

“They packed up my childhood bedroom, so yeah,” Mina muttered. “What sort of dance are you doing?”

“Hip-hop and stuff,” Momo said, looking a little embarrassed.

“Are you any good?” Mina asked with a discerning eye that Momo recognised and remembered; Mina trusted Momo in every situation to have an objective and well-informed evaluation of her own strengths and weaknesses.

“I’m good,” Momo breathed, wincing for a moment.

Mina dug harder into that spot with her thumb. “It’s good if it hurts.”

“Is that your policy on life?” Momo asked, ending her question with a scream.

Mina laughed, fending off the hits from a frenzied Momo. “I’m trying not to let it be.”

As Mina continued the supposedly beneficial massage, Momo bit down hard like a rabid animal into Mina’s shoulder, not holding back at all. They heard a buzz on the bedside table, and, in some sort of bad act of revenge, Momo reached over to pick up the phone and look at the notifications screen.

“She’s asking if you’re okay because you usually reply quite quickly,” Momo informed Mina and squealed again when Mina dug in deep. “If I were this way you would have thrown me out by now.”

“I have half a mind to throw you out right now,” Mina said, finally giving up on the torture session and rolling back onto her back, breathless; her threat seemed empty, though, because Momo studied her for some sign of actual resistance and witnessed a sort of concession, a personal admission of a personal truth, and Momo passed the phone over for the password to be given.

Momo held a pillow over her face as the phone was unlocked, which Mina thought was both hilarious and almost endearing. Momo scrolled through their entire chain of messages with a blank expression, but Mina could hear almost every intuitive analytical click in Momo’s mind. Momo could be a real dumbass about certain things, but other things she read like it was just the work of observing a colour or identifying a common smell.

“She’s nice,” Momo said. “She’s quite funny.”

“She is.”

“If you want me to go you should tell me.”

Mina opened her mouth but nothing came out. She let Momo fall asleep. She put a lot of the duvet between them and let tears of stress seep into the fabric, knowing Momo would not wake up to hear or see anything.

* * *

A week or so later, when Momo was called into the dean’s office she thought it meant she was losing her scholarship or that they were at least going to review her eligibility for maintaining it. It turned out that Isan, the multinational corporation sponsoring her education was conducting a general view to assess eligibility for a scholarship upgrade with some additional terms and conditions. This unusual event was even more unusual owing to that it was happening a month earlier than the usual review for _downgrading_. Momo thought about every excuse she could make to the assessment board and then ended up putting on a button-up, skirt, and heading to Isan’s headquarters.

There was a panel of four. Bald Korean man, bald _ing_ Korean man, Mina with a full head of hair, the person Mina was apparently dating for the time being. Momo answered politely about her lacklustre performance for the semester, obliging enough to keep her current scholarship and not enthusiastic enough to justify the already unlikely leap into a higher scholarship tier.

“Thank you for your consideration,” Momo said, bowing as she turned to leave.

“Thank you, Ms. Hirai,” the person Mina was apparently dating said.

As Momo left the building, loosening a few buttons on the curb and putting on her long padded coat, she heard a beep. She took out her phone while crossing the street and read the message.

_Can you please try to help yourself in the future?_

Momo thought about it and replied _I’m doing okay, don’t worry_.

Momo remembered she hadn’t brought her card out. She found some loose change and paid for a one-use card at the train station.

By then Mina had replied with _you just seemed very tired recently_.

Momo tapped herself in and got onto an escalator into the basement. She responded with _actually my stamina might be improving_.

Momo lowered the brightness on her phone when _really? Three times and you’re out? That’s improvement?_ flashed on the notifications drop-down. She thought for a moment and typed _look, if you want something longer lasting, I’ll help you find someone you can contract that can go at it for hours and hours. Or if you want something longer lasting I can help you ask Nayeon to, you know, go steady with you. Then you won’t have to bleach your entire apartment after one of us comes over. You really scrubbed citric acid into your marble counter and ruined it._

After three stations, meaning six to eight minutes, of no response, Momo got a call. She plugged her earpieces into the jack and put in an earpiece.

“I think you like me,” Mina said, sounding breathless, almost shy.

“I don’t think that’s the problem here.”

“Isn’t it?” Mina asked.

“Why are you pointing out how I might feel? If you want to say something, say something about yourself rather than guess at something about me,” Momo said, placing her other hand in her pocket and looking around at the strangers on the train; she switched to Japanese. “Yes, so you’re right. I do like you. Maybe I just decided now, but I like you a lot.”

There was silence on the line, and then a slow, breathy sigh.

“Are you doing what I think you’re doing?”

“ _Was_ ,” Mina corrected, but then abandoned that line of conversation. “There is no other way I might work up the courage.”

“I- wow,” Momo said, voice shrinking. "Where are you?"

“Car. You were away for a _week_ ,” Mina said with a dry mouth.

“I was busy, and you do have someone. I thought you wanted me to go the last time.”

“I didn’t say to go.”

“But you said it the last time.”

“Can you please quit that job?” Mina asked, as if asking for that one thing she wanted for Christmas from her parents, the girl that didn’t ask for a lot in comparison to her brother; she asked with some idea of her power and also with a large amount of shyness and the feeling of being undeserving.

“I really can’t.”

Momo could hear the self-disgust twisting in Mina’s throat as she said the next words. “I’ll pay for it.”

“Gross.”

“You are so difficult.”

“I’m not the one with a dinner date.”

Mina wanted to say _that’s because I could hardly tell whether you wanted me or not_ but came up only with silence. When one knot loosened another tightened, as her phone buzzed with messages even as she was on the line, and Momo heard the incessant buzzing on her end loud and clear.

“Come see me this weekend,” Mina said.

This was the first time an appointment had been made days in advance. Mina had already adapted to the one-day advance notice (Momo had rightly also adapted to that because she thought she might just drop in whenever she liked with an hour’s notice).

“I’ll think about it,” Momo said and then ended the call.


	3. Dawn

The evening was going well. Sort of. Mina had her nose in the menu of an upscale restaurant and someone with a salary fat enough to pay for meals like this all the time, and who had enough in liquid assets to buy a building and evict the tenants at a moment’s notice, was holding her hand. A dream. A fucking dream. Mina took a deep breath. She could make this work.

“Could I perhaps advise on our seasonal course?” a calm, even voice asked.

Mina looked up. Okay, maybe she couldn’t make this work.

“Please do,” Nayeon said, thumbing the back of Mina’s hand and failing to look up at their server.

“The appetiser is spice-crusted _ahi_ tuna with a sorrel veloute and a grapefruit gel, the main course is duck breast with thyme, basil, baby turnips, and liver pate, and the dessert is bananas marinated in _yuzu_ juice with a cognac-infused ice cream,” the server explained with the exact tone of disinterest one might expect from the staff working in such an establishment. “All the herbs and vegetables have been adjusted according to what is growing at the moment in our organic garden upstairs.”

Mina tried not to hear a word their server was saying, and Nayeon was listening attentively.

“Sounds nice,” Nayeon said, smiling a smile any sane individual would think was lovable. “Shall we go for that?”

“Why not,” Mina smiled gently back at her companion and, not tearing her eyes away from Nayeon, laid their menus down.

“A fine choice. Some wine, perhaps? We have a special 1990 Pinot Noir tonight,” the server carried on.

“That,” Mina said, “sounds divine.”

“Excellent, I’ll be back with your selection.”

“Could I perhaps be shown to the washroom?” Mina asked.

“Of course, miss, this way.”

Mina contemplated throwing her knife into Momo’s skull. Considering how much of a competent chameleon Momo was, Mina decided that Momo knew you should walk beside clients, or just slightly ahead of them, always keeping your face towards them, if escorting them anywhere. She was probably just trying to avoid any sort of unnecessary conversation, but they both had an inkling of where this Godforsaken stroke of lightning was taking them towards.

Momo led her down a quieter hallway, between the dining area and an entrance to the servers’ area. Before Momo could scoot when they reached the door to the ladies’ washroom, Mina slipped a hand beneath the lapel of Momo’s dark grey blazer and pulled her into the washroom. It was a private one, which was perfect. She locked the door behind them.

“Are you trying to screw me here?” Mina placed a finger on Momo’s chest.

“Funny, I was just about to ask you the same thing,” Momo said wryly.

“Is this a joke, or are you working here?” Mina asked, crossing her arms.

“I’m working here,” Momo said, somehow professionally detached, like she was the more mature of the two.

“I thought you were working at the chicken place.”

“This pays better.”

Mina stared at Momo, hair pulled back in a sharp ponytail, blazer well-ironed, shirt crisp, hands clasped in front of her as if this were another bloody interview or worse, scholarship review session. Mina wanted to slap her at the very least, kiss her at the worst.

“Is there a financial emergency or something?” Mina asked. “You have a decent allowance and the chicken place paid fine for dance lessons, right?”

Momo’s hands moved to run themselves through her hair, but her hair was gelled back, and there was no satisfaction in that. Momo grasped Mina’s wrists and pulled her towards the small padded bench in the corner of the private washroom.

“I got a scholarship offer,” Momo said, her hand still on the dam lever, trying desperately not to say everything at once.

Mina’s eyes narrowed. If anything she was decent at managing the stable of scholars Isan had to its name; it was a prestigious place and there needed to be returns on its investments in people.

“You’re getting poached?” Mina asked.

“No. Dance scholarship.”

“How.”

“I won some competitions.”

“And the extra money you’re earning is for?”

“Getting a place. I might put uni on hold, and the Isan scholarship.”

Mina looked blank. And then she looked as if she might walk right out of this washroom that smelled of lavender and now smelled of Momo, which was truly the most vexing thing on earth. Momo began to let go of her wrists, but Mina pushed back so that her palms were pressed to Momo’s.

“I don’t think you can pay the damages for breaking your scholarship bond like this,” Mina said truthfully. “Don’t do this. There are other ways.”

“I also want to leave Isan because I don’t want to work in finance,” Momo muttered, “and because I don’t want to be strapped to you.”

Mina clenched her teeth, as if she was reeling back from a slap in the face. _Momo sitting with her hands on her lap, holding onto the scholarship brochure. Momo passing through her department, on her summer mentorship with someone in the firm. Momo’s head on her shoulder in the office pantry, an hour before anyone even showed up to work._ She swallowed.

“Come see me tonight,” Mina said again, this time a plea; she hadn’t gotten a response after telling Momo to come see her on the weekend, and it was already Sunday evening, but there were still hours left to this day.

“You want to fuck me after you’ve fucked over this one?” Momo asked.

“Honestly, sometimes I just want to push you into the middle of a highway.”

“Thanks, that means a lot.”

“Also, get someone else to serve us, please; what were you planning on saying if she looked up and recognised you?”

“Something along the lines of ‘if you paid me more, maybe we wouldn’t both be here’, I think.”

 

* * *

 

It was eleven. Surely Momo would have been done by ten. Mina sat on her couch and looked at the small bouquet of baby’s breath set far across her living room on the other end of the couch. She had held onto it for the entire evening, and now she was certain it might bloody choke her with its scent.

Mina remained facing the windows when she heard the door open and Momo dust off her shoes, kick them off, and step inside.

“I brought chicken.”

“And I very nearly brought someone else home.”

Momo had the sense to laugh at that. “Really? What a shame.”

“I know.”

Mina finally got off her butt and walked towards the open kitchen. She was surprised to see Momo still in her work clothing. But her blazer was hung over the back of one of Mina’s kitchen stools, and the top two buttons of her shirt were undone. She had placed the box of chicken on the counter as per usual, and there was that duffel bag on the floor again.

“How late does work end for you?”

“Nine, but I stopped by the studio to get the keys before they locked up,” Momo said. “I’m going back to practise later.”

“Like, tonight?” Mina asked, and hated the note of disappointment in her voice.

“Would you, perhaps, like to come along?”

 _I would very much like to._ But Mina couldn’t say the words just yet. She reached out towards Momo and began steadily unbuttoning Momo’s blouse. She worked in a quiet, methodical way, so Momo didn’t know what to make of her actions. When she was done, she peeled the blouse off Momo’s torso, and wrapped her arms around Momo’s waist, tucking her head into Momo’s neck. She breathed in. Much better. She liked to be this close to the source of all her headaches.

“I want you to stay with me,” Mina said clearly, though her voice was muffled in Momo’s neck. “You can work off your debt to Isan or whatever, do that. If you need help I’ll provide it. Paying me back is going to be so much fucking easier, if you could get your thick head around the concept.”

“Mina-”

“Please fucking say yes, I’m all out of strength. I ate some raw turnip salad and pretended I enjoy my job with someone who is more or less my boss earlier today, would you please just fucking say yes.”

“I hope you see the irony in that,” Momo said, and for some horribly confusing reason pressed her mouth to Mina’s temple, breathing quietly there. “Give me some time to think about it.”

“Okay.”

That was much better than nothing, for Mina. Much better than a ‘no’. Considering that she hadn’t replied to any of Nayeon’s text messages following the date and had brushed off the offer to go back to Nayeon’s place, Mina figured that her entire heart was set on Momo, and all the tugging and spitting and resisting that came with it.

 

* * *

 

Mina found that she could watch Momo dance for a hundred songs and not get tired of it. She definitely got restless in some ways, but Momo was clearly focused on whatever her project was, creating choreography for a dance solo or something. She had a pair of track pants and a sports bra on and had broken into a sweat after about two straight hours of work. Once in a while she looked at Mina after doing her revised routine, expressionless, and got back to things.

At least Momo knew when she had something. Mina had no business pretending as if she wasn’t assessing Momo’s moves, and it was probably this eye of scrutiny that Momo was tired of being under. But of course Momo knew herself like no other, whether she questioned her own judgements from time to time or not. Mina admired that.

Mina lounged back on her elbows as Momo walked to her phone again, presumably to play the track again. But something else came on this time, and Momo walked over to where Mina was lying and lay down as well, supporting her face with her arm. Mina stared at Momo as Coppelia’s _L’aurore_ filled the dance studio in a basement in Cheongdam-dong.

“It was written on the back of a photo among your trophies,” Momo said, the fingers on her right hand dancing along to the music in the space between her and Mina’s bodies. “I’ve been listening to it for a while. Do you remember how to dance to it?”

“Barely,” Mina said.

Mina got up and stretched. The footwork came back to her quickly. She pranced from the left of the stage to the right in a flowing movement, and came into an arabesque, and then a pirouette, and then back to simple footwork. _L’aurore_ was simple, and sometimes overlooked, but it was a happy thing in the middle of a ballet with rather frightening undertones.

Forgetting the rendition she had done a very long time ago, Mina wound her body up on the floor next to Momo and studied Momo’s face. She had an unassuming, slightly cautious expression on her face, and her bangs were messy on her sweaty forehead. Mina knew, at the very least, that following their battles of wit and pushing each other to the edge of  _who wants this more_ , they had gotten themselves to some impasse, some Nash equilibrium that made Momo less barbed, more obviously afraid to commit. But 'will you dance for me' was enough to show where she stood, still.

“Momo,” Mina said as the music drew to a close.

“Hmm?”

“You like me,” Mina said.

“Yeah, I recall mentioning it.”

Mina might have rolled her eyes in another situation.

“Do you love me?” she asked instead, and before Momo could re-hash her request for Mina to say something about herself rather than guess at something about Momo, Mina beat her to it. “I think you do, and I really, really love you.”

“Really, in this place at 3am?” Momo sighed; Mina could see her eyes get glassy, but she didn't reach over just yet. “Yes, I love you.”

Mina breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay, good.”

Somehow even with a whole lot of logistics that hadn’t yet been worked out, things finally felt stable and certain, even if more frightening now that the stakes were high and all the cards were on the table. Mina elected to forget about the details and that she had work in the morning, and pulled Momo into a kiss. She could feel Momo's warmth, finally listen to the anxiety in Momo's movements as she breathed in Mina, and also the scent of a foreign perfume, and tried her best to swallow everything whole. No more scrubbing out the taste of each other on their tongues, no more forgetting in the mornings. Everything was the same, but also newer, like some imperfectly breaking dawn.

 

* * *

 

HR could be overheard from the pantry talking about _another scholar breaking their bond_. Really, HR could be overheard from any seat in the adjacent departments at any time of the day, those overpaid, talkative asses with their miscellaneous qualifications. Mina focused on the coffee machine. It was producing an endless stream of black liquid that would pool into the abyss of the coffee flask. Mina sighed and picked up the flask of crap coffee and made herself a cup the way she liked it on shit Monday mornings - just black and tasting faintly of finely ground-up dirt.

Mina got done with her sheets by lunch hour, which was nice, and she hadn’t seen Nayeon once today. She knew that what Nayeon deserved was a simple ‘I’m not interested, and I’m sorry to have not said this earlier’, and she planned to deliver that at a point in time where she was less sleep-deprived. She picked up her purse and coat and headed downstairs to the lobby.

Sitting in the middle of the cold, white front-of-house was someone in a black coat and a red woollen scarf, holding onto a box and some crumpled papers.

“All done?” Mina asked.

“I have to finish this semester, still.”

“Oh, sad,” Mina said with a hint of dry humour in her tone. “Should we go to lunch?”

“I brought the chicken we didn’t get to last night, actually,” Momo said, thumbing the corners of the box in her lap.

Mina ran her fingers through her hair. “Yeah. Sounds good. My car’s in the basement.”

Momo seemed to be waiting for something. She got up, wiped her apparently sweaty palms on her coat, and held her papers and the box of chicken in one hand. She held the other open, waiting for Mina’s hand. Mina slipped her fingers in between Momo’s and felt both of them holding their breaths, like this was everything happening the right way round for the first time. Mina exhaled with the tremorous feeling of knowing, this time, that she would keep her.


End file.
